As reported by The Daily Mail, City boss Guardiola said last weekend that sometimes Mane is “diving” and sometimes he scores “incredible goals”.

Wijnaldum has responded to the former Barcelona manager’s comments about his Liverpool teammate, who joined the Reds from Southampton in the summer of 2016 for a transfer fee reported by BBC Sport to be worth £34 million.

Wijnaldum told The Daily Mail: “I heard what he said. He gave his opinion about us and the way he thinks. Nothing bad in that. That is his opinion. In his opinion Sadio is a diver. What can you say about that?

“I didn’t see the Villa one back [when Mane was booked for diving], so it’s difficult to give my opinion on that, but I can’t remember Sadio doing it before. Now we have VAR as well, so…

“How many players of ours have had a yellow card for diving? Sadio was the first, I think? So to say that we are divers, I think it’s a little bit strange. That’s my opinion.”

Big game this weekend

Liverpool and City will face each other at Anfield in the Premier League this weekend.

It is a massive game which could decide the league title race, and City have to win it.

True, the Citizens have won the league title for the past two seasons and have arguably the strongest squad in England, but Liverpool are doing well at the moment and are winning matches, and they are the current favourites for the championship.